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My first exposure to Gang of Four's music was from either WNYU's legendary New Afternoon show in the latest of 70s or from Hofstra University's Jeff Foss. (To hear me ramble on more about these stations, listen to my 50th episode with Mike Dreese of Newbury Comics.

It was likely "I Found that Essence Rare" or "Damaged Goods" that pulled me in at first...punky guitars, funky bass, tribal beats, angry vocals, socio-political lyrics, and Marxist ideals. Who could resist?

As a part of an amazing era of post-punk music (including some of their peers, like The Au Pairs, Bush Tetras, Delta 5, The Mekons, Mission of Burma, and Wire, among others) Gang of Four was funky and abrasive, tribal and confrontational, political and personal, and best of all, their albums from the late 70s and early 80s have stood the test of time and Gang of Four has become one of the most influential bands of the last 30 years.

Continue reading "Episode 068: Dave Allen of Gang of Four, Shriekback, Pampelmoose, and NORTH" »

Posted by Charlie at 11:58 PM | Permalink

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Long before the internet came barreling along, music magazines were one of the most important ways for music fans to read about their favorites and discover new artists.

I've spent my share of time and money reading great 4-color, glossy, music magazines and newspapers through the years: Rolling Stone. Creem. Trouser Press. NME. Melody Maker. The Big Takeover. Goldmine. Musician. The Bob. Record. Matter. Forced Exposure. Spin. Magnet. Ray Gun. Jazz Times. Paste. Filter. Harp. Mojo.

How would the audiences of modern music have grown and expanded were it not for all these magazines and dozens more like them? I'd be lying if I said all these wonderful publications didn't greatly shape my tastes in music, art, culture, and prose--and my record collection.

But why are they important? Just like blogs or podcasts, it was and is the people behind them...the writers and editors, photographers and designers, sales reps and trafficking and subscription folks. People who, by and large, really loved music and played the roles of tastemakers and critics and curators, bringing their favorites to the masses.

No Depression was another magazine I often bought, too. No Depression published its first print edition in 1995 and continued through 2008, carrying on the great traditions of smart writing and in-depth interviews with a focus on Americana or roots music or, alt-country, as it was called in its earliest days.

Continue reading "Episode 067: Kyla Fairchild of No Depression" »

Posted by Charlie at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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Festival owner and producer George Wein may not be one of those names in the history of music that everyone knows as he so often kept himself behind the scenes, but Wein has had an enormous impact on the world of live music and festivals, especially jazz.

Last year I interviewed Jay Sweet, who co-produces (with Bob Jones) the Newport Folk Festival; Sweet has worked with George Wein since 2005. You can hear that interview and check out the line-up for this year's folk festival, taking place July 30-August 1.

The Newport Jazz Festival takes place August 6-8, 2010.

Wein was born in in 1925 in Lynn, Massachusetts and grew up in Newton, where he learned to play jazz piano and performed in a variety of jazz groups. As he details in our conversation, after serving in the second World War, he opened Storyville, a jazz club that solidified his lifelong relationship with jazz musicians.

In 1954, Wein started the Newport Jazz Festival; five years later, with the help of Pete Seeger and others, the Newport Folk Festival was born. Wein went on to start a number of festivals in other cities, including the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles, and JVC Jazz Festivals in cities around the world, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris, Warsaw, and Tokyo.

Continue reading "Episode 066: George Wein of the Newport Jazz + Folk Festivals" »

Posted by Charlie at 12:00 AM | Permalink

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This episode is dedicated to Dan Nash, a friend of mine in England who passed away on January 22. Dan was working on a number of different music projects including New Musical Order and Rockin' Daily. We were fans of each others' work online and were working together on Musicians for Music 2.0. Dan had a congenital heart defect and has left us at the young age of 28. I hope he is listening to this episode up there and enjoying it...

In many music and entertainment circles, the name Lawrence Lessig needs no introduction, but for those who don't know his work, here's some background.

Lessig is a lawyer and activist whose interests are mostly in intellectual property, copyright, technology, and political reform. He's has written five influential books, including Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (2000), The Future of Ideas (2001), Free Culture (2004), Code: Version 2.0 (2006), and Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (2008).

Remix was just published in paperback in October 2009.

Continue reading "Episode 063: Lawrence Lessig of Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy" »

Posted by Charlie at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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Somewhat unintentionally, a number of the last handful of episodes of Well-Rounded Radio have been about what may well be the future of the music business, with interviews featuring Michael Bracy of The Future of Music Coalition, Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity, Jeff Price of TuneCore, and Joshua Boltuch of Amie Street.

As more and more power has been taken out of the hands of the traditional music industry and put in the hands of musicians, it's feeling like the goals are no longer a major record label deal, massive amounts of commercial radio airplay, a hit video on MTV, or the cover of Rolling Stone, even if those things are still all very welcome.

So what's next, for both musicians and music fans who want to discover their next favorite band or recording?

Continue reading "Episode 060: Scott Kirsner of Fans, Friends, & Followers" »

Posted by Charlie at 12:00 AM | Permalink

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The Newport Jazz Festival started in 1954 by George Wein and is celebrating its 55th anniversary on August 8th and 9th in Newport, Rhode Island.

It's slightly younger sibling, long known as the Newport Folk Festival and going by the name George Wein's Folk Festival 50 this year, is celebrating its 50th anniversary on August 1st and 2nd. The folk festival was started by Theodore Bikel, Oscar Brand, Albert Grossman, Pete Seeger and George Wein.

Jay Sweet (pictured with founder George Wein) has been producing the festival for the last few years and you may also know his name as Editor-at-large for Paste magazine. Sweet also co-owns a music services company called Sweet & Doggett.

This year's line-up includes The Avett Brothers, Balfa Toujours, Joan Baez, Billy Bragg, The Campbell Brothers, Neko Case, Guy Clark, Judy Collins, Dala, Dear Tick, The Decemberists, Brett Dennen, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Tim Eriksen and the Shape Note Singers, Fleet Foxes, Arlo Guthrie, Iron and Wine, Ben Kweller, Langhorne Slim, The Low Anthem, Del McCoury, Tift Merritt, Tom Morello: The Nightwatchmen, Joe Pug, David Rawlings Machine, Josh Ritter (listen to the Well-Rounded Radio interview with Josh Ritter), Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples, and Gillian Welch. You'll hear some highlights from many of these artists woven into my conversation with Sweet.

You can buy tickets to next weekend's festival at folkfestival50.com and if you can't make it to Newport, listen to NPR Music's webcasts.

Continue reading "Episode 059: Jay Sweet of George Wein's Folk Festival 50" »

Posted by Charlie at 01:14 PM | Permalink

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So, back in the 70s, my older siblings Michael, Maureen, Joseph, and John respectively turned me onto Arlo Guthrie (and David Bromberg), Carly Simon (and James Taylor), Led Zeppelin (and The Rolling Stones, Peter Tosh, Bachman, Turner, Overdrive, and Yes) and The Monkees (and The Beatles, Paul Revere and The Raiders, The Association, and The Dead Kennedys, and my cousin Thomas turned me onto The Clash (and The Ramones and Talking Heads).

With that kind of introduction and education, it's no surprise I got hooked on music and started buying vinyl.

If I remember correctly, Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was my first in 1973 at Korvettes in Flushing, Queens...of course a double album. My dad told me that if it affected my grades in any way, he would take it away. I was seven.

Continue reading "Episode 058: Josh Boltuch of Amie Street" »

Posted by Charlie at 12:33 AM | Permalink

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As anyone who buys music knows, the way we are finding it and buying it has changed radically over the last 15 years.

For musicians, it used to be that if you wanted someone to release your music, you'd have to get the attention and approval of an artist and repertoire (or A&R person) at a label, work to sign a deal either big or small so that the label would then press up your product and work with distributors to get your vinyl or 8-track or cassette or CD to ship them out to record stores where the music fan could have access to them.

Now, all you have to do it is get some audio files online and instantly be able to have your music available to the current online global audience of 1.5 billion people, which is still just about 23% of the world's population, so the potential for reaching new audiences continues to grow. As mobile devices get smarter, it's inevitable that consumers will be downloading more music and playing it without a desktop or laptop computer even being involved, too.

As a result of the rise of digital download stores such as iTunes and Amazon mp3, the need has come for new companies to aggregate songs and distribute them out to all these growing online stores.

That's where TuneCore comes in.

Continue reading "Episode 056: Jeff Price of TuneCore" »

Posted by Charlie at 12:00 AM | Permalink

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A little over a year ago I interviewed Jenny Toomey, who co-founded The Future of Music Coalition in 2000 with Michael Bracy, Walter McDonough and Brian Zisk. Toomey and I discussed how the organization came into existance and some of its main areas of focus. You can hear that interview here. Toomey has since moved over to the Ford Foundation and Ann Chaitovitz is the new Executive Director.

Bracy is the Policy Director for The Future of Music Coalition. He also co-owns the Misra Records label and is a partner at Bracy Tucker Brown & Valanzano, a government and public affairs consulting firm in Washington D.C., so he knows his way around the worlds of both music and legislation.

The Future of Music Coalition is, to quote, "a national non-profit education, research, and advocacy organization that seeks a bright future for creators and listeners. FMC works towards this goal through continuous interaction with its primary constituency--musicians--and in collaboration with other creator/public interest groups."

Continue reading "Episode 054: Michael Bracy of The Future of Music Coalition" »

Posted by Charlie at 09:40 PM | Permalink

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Thanks again to everyone who took our recent online survey. I learned some great information about who is listening to the show, what you like and what you'd like to hear more of. I was especially surprised to learn from the group that responded that 57% of you identified yourselves as musicians.

I have had fun doing interviews with music industry thought leaders in recent years as it's obvious that the music business is in a great deal of flux for both musicians and music fans. Truthfully, though, I haven't heard or read many good interviews about these changes. If you go to music conferences or subscribe to things like the Pho list you get to be on the inside of all these changes, but otherwise, it's a classic case of being shut out of ideas that are advancing around you.

I hadn't realized that musicians are tuning in to Well-Rounded Radio as an educational outlet, but that does seem to be the case and this episode, with an interview with Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity, it's a perfect case of providing some additional insight that I think can be very helpful to musicians.

Continue reading "Episode 051: Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity" »

Posted by Charlie at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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Newbury Comics started as a comics store on Newbury Street, a famed block for shopping in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, but now each of their 27 locations sells CDs, vinyl, DVDs, posters, toys, books, magazines, sports merchandise, clothes, shoes, housewares, and much more.

Given how much time (and money!) I have spent at Newbury Comics over these last eight years and how much great music I have discovered there and subsequently brought to my listeners, I was glad to be able to interview Mike Dreese, the co-founder of Newbury Comics, as we had a great conversation about the state of record retailing and the state of the music business in general.

If you live here, you already know why it's such a fun place. If and when you visit New England, be sure to stop by one of their stores and experience it for yourself. Newbury Comics now has locations in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island with the majority of stores in Greater Boston. Check newburycomics.com for address location and to shop online as well.

Our timing of featuring Dreese on Well-Rounded Radio's 50th episode is good as this year is Newbury Comics' 30th anniversary and they are opening two new stores this summer. One is a super store in Norwood, Massachusetts in a space formerly used by a car dealership, which sounds like it might give the Amoeba Records stores a run for their money, and a second store will be located at historic Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston. Maybe there is a future for the record store, yet.

Continue reading "Episode 050: Mike Dreese of Newbury Comics" »

Posted by Charlie at 12:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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As music licensing continues to become an important way for musicians to earn money as the music business continues to change, there are a number of ways that musicians can get their music out to those professionals that are seeking music for their projects, which tends to be Music Supervisors and Producers for film projects, commercials, television shows, and games. From my own experience, getting your music in front of these folks can be pretty time consuming, so a service like Rumblefish eliminates much of that effort and once again levels the proverbial playing field for musicians at all levels to get into the licensing game.

Rumblefish is a sonic branding and music licensing company started by Paul Anthony in 1996 after his own work producing Sarah McLachlan, composing film scores, and various other roles in the music business. Richard Jankovich, who I interviewed a few years back as member of Burnside Project, is now with Rumblefish in Portland, Oregon as Director of A+R and Licensing after working with DeWolfe Music Publishing in New York City for many years.

Continue reading "Episode 048: Richard Jankovich of Rumblefish" »

Posted by Charlie at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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As a fan of her work in the band Tsunami, when I first heard that its singer/songwriter Jenny Toomey was working with a group of policy and legislative folks in Washington D.C. at The Future of Music Coalition, I was sort of surprised.

Toomey fronted the indie rock band Tsunami for much of the 1990s and a subsequent solo career that she continues today. She was also the co-founder of Simple Machines Records which, between 1990-1997 released over 70 records for acts including Tsunami, Scrawl, Ida, Grenadine, and Liquorice. Toomey's band mate and business partner was Kristin Thomson, who is also a Deputy and Education Director at The Future of Music Coalition. When you put it all together, though, it all makes perfect sense: Toomey is an independent musician who is still looking out for other working, independent musicians.

Continue reading "Episode 041: Jenny Toomey of The Future of Music Coalition" »

Posted by Charlie at 09:00 PM | Permalink

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My wife's family lives in and around Portland, Oregon, so at least a couple of times a year we head west from Boston to visit. The last few times I've picked up copies of the PDX Pop Now! two-disc CD compilations that have been released since 2004. Portland, or PDX as the city has been come to be known due to its airport's truncated ID, has long had a healthy music scene, but the compilations showed how diverse and robust the city's musical offerings had gotten. Each year PDX Pop Now! also puts on a 3-day, all-ages, free festival in Portland, usually in late July/early August (this year's dates are August 3-5, 2007) which brings together many of the artists featured on the CDs in a live setting that is nearly impossible to resist.

Continue reading "Episode 039: Brent Bell of PDX Pop Now!" »

Posted by Charlie at 08:33 PM | Permalink

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Sonicbids is an online service that offers musicians a way to submit their EPK, or electronic press kit, to a number of outlets for consideration. These including clubs and live venues, compilation CDs, festivals, songwriting contests, film, television, + commercial licensing, magazines, awards, college bookings, podcasts, Internet radio, and plenty of other opportunities, as they call them.

The company was founded in 2001 by Panos Panay and is still run by him today. And as of May 2007, Sonicbids is coming up on 100,000 members and 80,000 promoters from more than 100 countries around the globe.

Continue reading "Episode 037: Panos Panay of Sonicbids" »

Posted by Charlie at 05:08 PM | Permalink

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Pandora is a leader amid a growing group of web sites and services that look to the user to provide their insight about what kind of music or media we like and then the recommendation engine offers up other artists and music to help expose us to new music. Some others include last.fm, Tagworld, Mercora, and LAUNCHcast.

I had the opportunity to meet with Tim Westergren, Pandora's Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, who has been traveling across the country in recent months meeting with listeners at town hall gatherings. Westergren was in New England for town hall meetings in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. To see if Westergren will be in your neck of the woods, visit blog.pandora.com.

Continue reading "Episode 032 : Tim Westergren of Pandora" »

Posted by Charlie at 01:00 AM | Permalink

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I first learned about Brad Powell and Calabash Music from a friend of my friend, Marion Seymour, ironically, both of whom live in Seattle, Washington--a city where Powell and I both once lived before both returning east and now living in Boston.

Hearing about what Powell was doing, I checked out the Calabash Music site and found many a treasure from around the world. I then asked Powell to record a Well-Rounded Rave for a previous episode of Well-Rounded Radio where he talks about Oswin Chin Behilia from Curacao.

Since 2001, Powell has been the shopkeep for what he describes as a "carefully curated boutique" of music from all over the world. As he describes in the Well-Rounded Radio interview, Calabash Music now features several thousand artists and about 20,000 individual tracks. He's now attracting musicians from around the world who want to be included in their catalogue.

Continue reading "Episode 021 : Brad Powell of Calabash Music" »

Posted by Charlie at 10:45 AM | Permalink

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In August 2003, Holmes Wilson and Nicholas Reville created Downhill Battle, a music activism organization that wants to create a decentralized music business and a level playing field for independent musicians and labels.

Now, along with fellow Downhill Battlers Tiffiniy Cheng, Nick Nassar, Rebecca Laurie, and a handful of other dedicated staffers, Reville and Wilson work with a myriad of volunteers to spread the word around the US and around the world.

Downhill Battle's web site states its plan is "to explain how the major [record labels] really work, develop software to make filesharing stronger, rally public support for a legal p2p compensation system, and connect independent music scenes with the free culture movement."

Continue reading "Episode 019 : Nicholas Reville of Downhill Battle + Participatory Culture" »

Posted by Charlie at 11:08 AM | Permalink

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When you ask people about what the future of music will look like, you'll often get a wide variety of ideas on the subject. It's probably because in the last ten years, so much of it has changed (largely due to the Internet becoming a delivery method) that it barely resembles the old model. Since all the rules are changed (and are continuing to change each day), the time is ripe to make up "new rules."

But as Dave Kusek (co-author of "The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution" and Vice President of Berklee Media at the Berklee College of Music) details in the new book, the new model looks an awful lot like the model from 70 years ago, where musicians made their money from performing and other revenue sources and not from discs made of shellac, wax, vinyl or plastic where were released by record labels (or your friendly neighborhood multi-national conglomerate) and sold to you and I. But where does that leave the record labels?

Continue reading "Episode 015 : Dave Kusek, co-author of "The Future of Music" book" »

Posted by Charlie at 08:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)